The Army has stopped serving cooked breakfasts to some of the U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan as part of its drawdown, a move that prompted troops to write home asking their families and friends to send care packages with cereal, breakfast bars and other foods.

The Army told the Washington Guardian the current cutbacks began Jan. 1, and affect about 2,700 soldiers deployed in forward operating bases in more remote areas of Afghanistan.

Officials said the reduction of cooked breakfasts and midnight meals is not related to the U.S. budget crisis, but rather is part of the effort to begin closing down U.S. operations in the affected areas and transition them to Afghan troops. The affected soldiers are being given packaged meals known as MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) as substitutes for a cooked breakfast, the officials said.

Telling the troops to rough it,when they have to rough it,is part of any military.Having them rough it,when it is cheaper is stupid.It is acting like amateurs actually,European armies do that when their soldiers don’t have food or ammo.Tell them the Euro equivalent of suck it up and drive on.

It is cheap and it is stupid.If you can have soldiers fight comfortably and well fed,then you owe it to yourselves to do.Having soldiers rough it their entire military careers because “it is good for them”,leads to nowhere except physical problems later on.Physical problems the taxpayer ends up paying for.

It wasn’t unusual to have 3 MREs a day the first few days of a deployment or if in a remote location. Other times, the MRE depended on the schedule for the day. I agree that mostly it was at lunch, however, if you’ve got a lot of folks running on reverse cycle, then it might make more sense to have the hot at lunch and supper, since that would be a more likely time for the night shift to be awake. The fact that they have midrats says that they’re running shifts.

26
posted on 01/29/2013 4:42:15 PM PST
by xzins
(Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)

Just to be honest with you, there’s some MREs I’d rather have than some more of the oven moistened French toast and oven moistened scrambled egg breakfasts that I’ve had.

And, having participated in the “old army” back in the Viet era, I still think there were items in the old C rations that were better than the MREs. A heated tin of the old C rat bread....mmmmmm mmmmmm good.

27
posted on 01/29/2013 4:49:41 PM PST
by xzins
(Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)

I hear ya. I was on night shift/stay shift for most of my time in the corps. Mid-rats were like lunch to us, breakfast was like dinner. And being overseas quite a bit of the time; going out for mikyD’s wasn’t an option.
(as my oldest son in the corps, stationed in Kadena is figuring out currently)

That’s just un-sat!

29
posted on 01/29/2013 5:01:42 PM PST
by BigpapaBo
(If it don't kill you it'll make you _________!)

As a part of the responsible draw down of operational forces serving in Afghanistan, my staff examined ways to reduce our footprint and set the conditions for the reduction of forces, explained Col. Joe Wawro, an infantry commander for the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat team.

Wawro said military and civilian leaders collaborated on ideas and estimated that by changing the meal cycle, they would reduce their overall operations by 40 percent if breakfast and midnight snacks were converted from cooked options to MREs.

Yeah, Colonel, starving your troops will certainly reduce operations.

Why anyone would want to join this increasing joke of an organization right now, under such incompetent, careless, and self-serving leadership, is beyond me.

This is a national disgrace! Obama can fly all over continuing his stupid “campaign” and we’re not feeding our troops?!
Where are the Repubs? Why don’t we hear screaming from the rooftops about this?! Call Obama on this!!!!!!! And don’t blame any stupid sequestration or budget cuts.....time to cut the imperial presidency and spend $$ where it needs to go!

In terms of sheer effect on morale, breakfast well prepared with eggs to order is when available the most important meal of the day. And soldiers love the cooks who are up long before everyone else & who are usually the last to turn in at night to make sure everyone gets fed.

This is in the field cooking out of an MKT (mobile kitchen trailer).

MREs at breakfast time were only there to be issued for the lunch meal, period.

36
posted on 01/29/2013 5:32:15 PM PST
by elcid1970
("The Second Amendment is more important than Islam.")

I hope I didn't violate some rule by my post #38. Trying something new. Anyways, I ALWAYS try to follow the rules and COMPLY. Hey, gotta go...my train is leaving the station...(I hope I get one of the super neato armbands the guards porters have)

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